Colin Sheridan: Better late than never for Achill's broadband lifeline

Irish Examiner

3 days ago

A win is a win. They don't ask you how. You're only as good as your last €2.5bn project.
Sporting metaphors usually help capture the mood of political triumphs, and sure enough, in Keel Community Centre on Achill Island, the hall had the air of a dressing room after an All-Ireland win.
Announcing the roll-out of fibre broadband across Ireland's largest island, minister for culture Patrick O'Donovan spoke with the confidence of a manager who'd been doubted more times than the wifi signal in the back bedroom.
'WE SHOWED THEM' was the tenor of much of his speech.
By the fifth time he said it, the polite nods of locals had turned to even politer sighs.
Credit where it's due: The Government doesn't get many slam-dunks these days.
Connecting the people of Achill with the rest of the world was a rare one.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em, I guess.
David McCourt and TJ Malone of National Broadband Ireland with culture minister Patrick O'Donovan on Keel Beach, Achill Island. Picture: Michael McLaughlin
Here are the stats:
'Main build works on the island infrastructure are now complete, enabling over 2,500 homes, farms and businesses to access high-speed broadband.
'This means residents of Ireland's largest island will have the same access to 2 Gig, reliable broadband as any of the over 380,000 premises that NBI has already passed across the country.'
In plain English, Achill got mail.
Affordable broadband
Homes, farms, schools, and businesses now have the option of affordable, high-speed broadband.
No longer will baristas need to raise a debit card reader skyward to execute a simple payment for a routine skinny flat white.
Gone are the days of sketchy GAA Go streams.
I mean, sure, if only there were a Mayo match to watch — but all jokes aside, broadband means opportunity.
In an age of remote working, you're only as good as your download speed.
It being a launch, there was a launch video.
And if you're going to launch a launch video, launch it in Achill. Aerial shots of Keel, Keem, the Famine Village, gorgeous white beaches and roaring blue seas.
Circet managing director (Ireland) Damien Gallagher; National Broadband Ireland stakeholder engagement and PR manager Sandra Dinan; House of Achill founder Anna Sutcliffe; and National Broadband Ireland chief marketing officer Tara Collins. Picture: Michael McLaughlin
Christ, after three minutes of drone footage of the Wild Atlantic Way, a man would nearly fall to his knees and plead with the people of Achill — a beautiful outlier of an island — to run the opposite way from all internet connectivity.
I've seen the best minds of my generation ruined by Twitter scrolling.
Be brave, Achill. Do without it.
But that's not fair. It's selective and a bit elitist.
Island has to be connected
Listening to Anna Sutcliffe, purveyor of luxury candles through her company House of Achill, you realise that for rural Ireland to survive and thrive, it absolutely has to be connected.
For young people to have a chance to stay, to move home if they left.
To begin again, like Anna, if they chose to relocate and try something new.
'Traditionally on the island, we were very dependent on the tourism season,' Anna explains.
Now with fibre, I finally have a fast, reliable connection to support online sales and ensure customer service year-round. I can focus on what I enjoy most about the business — being creative.
No arguments here.
Other small business owners echoed similar relief at the arrival of fibre.
Lilí Bán Café proprietor John Barrett nails a simple truth: 'Running a business on Achill Island has its challenges.
Without broadband, the weather often impacted the signal and the reliability of the connection.
"It's exciting to see a new wave of business starting on the island, and fibre connectivity has definitely played a big part in this.'
Central to the Great Connection was adopted Clare man David McCourt, founder and chairman of National Broadband Ireland — a man with a voice so smooth you could stream Squid Game off it.
When he addressed the hall, the vibe was less 'we showed them,' more 'you showed yourselves'.
If I'd closed my eyes, I could've sworn I was at a town hall meeting in a Steinbeck novel.
Remote but close
Achill, a frontier town in the New West during the gold rush, suddenly connected, with the world their oyster.
But here's the thing: Achill, though remote, is two hours from Galway. Three hours and change from Dublin, our capital city.
It's hardly Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories.
Standing there in that community centre, I couldn't help getting swept up in the wave of goodwill and opportunity the Government will justifiably celebrate.
But as a man who turned turf as a boy just an hour down the road, I couldn't help thinking of Edwin McGreal writing recently in The Western People: 'In terms of infrastructural development, the Northern Western Region [Connacht plus Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan] is ranked an alarming 218th out of 234 regions across Europe. Our Midlands and Eastern Region scores over three times higher for infrastructural development.
In 2022, the European Commission downgraded us [the Northwest Region] to a 'lagging region' when our GDP fell to 71% of the European average. The focus ought to be diverted here — and fast.
No One Shouted Stop was published by John Healy 57 years ago — a wolf-whistle lamenting the economic and social decline of rural life in the west of Ireland, and Dublin's wilful ignorance of it.
There was no broadband in 1968, and the only fibre in Mayo came from All-Bran.
That the Government finally delivered on a single promise is good.
But it's the least they could do.